We left the Cinque Terre on the first train out of Vernazza (5am). We headed to Bologna to catch a glimpse of its famous food market, and it was well worth our time. There is a reason one of Bologna's many nicknames is La Grassa (The Fat).

We decided to rent a car and drive to Slovenia mostly as it was much cheaper than taking the train. Unfortunately that's only the case if you rent one of the very cute and compact, manual transmission 1.2 L Fiat 500s. I'll be frank with you--the odds were not stacked in our favor. Freightliners are just as big on the Italian Autostrada as they are in the U.S., and prior to today my only experience with a 5-speed was tearing to shreds the transmission on Mr. Page's truck one afternoon about 11 years ago (I now credit Evan Page and that truck with saving our lives--Thanks Evan).

We were up for the challenge though, and after a humbling 20 minute series of misadventures in the Avis parking lot (trying to unlock to shift into reverse and stalling several times) we were off and completed the trip to Bled, Slovenia in impressive style.

Steph and I are now in love with Fiats and are 100% behind the Chrysler merger.

Hope you're all doing well. We're excited to be in Slovenia and even more excited to see the Pevecs.